August 2004
genuine scottish
jane with some highland toffee
dog sign
here is a carved no dog sign:
electricity
this appealed to me. it’s an electric cable which runs from underneath the loch to the house on the island (which i’ve helpfully highlighted for you!). it’s was very strange and the water was so clear.
the sign which warns of electric cables on the right wasn’t actually anywhere near the cable.
bollard swimming
esther spotted these bollards in scotland swimming in a loch. we watched them for a while but they didn’t move. they must have been scared of us i think
bagpipes
i was sitting outside a bar with my father in law when this chap walked by with his giant drum
a little later we heard the full troupe and went in search:
the sound of pipes is quite amazing. here is one being tuned. this sounded even more amazing.
here’s a a tune which i thought was great. it was played by a single bagman. does anyone know what this one is called ? and here’s that one that everyone knows.
sorry about the quality of the clips. my phone is a bit rubbish at recording stuff !
Montrose House, Balmaha
when we were in scotland we stayed in a plce called montrose house in balmaha. it’s a fantastic place. absolutely massive and handy for walking, a little shop and the pub. there some photos and stuff here
It used to be a holiday house for poor kids and there’s a picture of it in the olden days here
here is the entrance stair case:
and here is the dining room table:
and here’s what it looks like from the outside:
the view out the front was superb, as was the view from the back.
in fact, if you aren’t a regular reader of this blog then just have a look at the scotland category if you want to see what’s to do and see around and about.
new traffic scheme
this sign was on a lamp-post positioned for pedestrians and pub-dwellers to see rather than cars. it’s also hidden in a tree.
stealth signs. that’s the future.
when blogs colide
whenever i’ve met other bloggers they’ve always turned out to be fantastically nice people. regular commenter maxx from maxblog was in london today so we met up for a glass of fizzy pop with konstantin from london leben.
both are german but were happy to talk english whilst i was there. i find stuff like that really humbling and completely helpful.
here they are. konstantin on the left and maxx on the right. i can assure you they looked normal in real life !